The collection of meter data from electrical energy, water, and gas meters has traditionally been performed by human meter-readers. The meter-reader travels to the meter location, which is frequently on the customer's premises, visually inspects the meter, and records the reading. The meter-reader may be prevented from gaining access to the meter as a result of inclement weather or, where the meter is located within the customer's premises, due to an absentee customer. This methodology of meter data collection is labor intensive, prone to human error, and often results in stale and inflexible metering data.
Some meters have been enhanced to include a one-way radio transmitter for transmitting metering data to a receiving device. A person collecting meter data that is equipped with an appropriate radio receiver need only come into proximity with a meter to read the meter data and need not visually inspect the meter. Thus, a meter-reader may walk or drive by a meter location to take a meter reading. While this represents an improvement over visiting and visually inspecting each meter, it still requires human involvement in the process.
Conventional meter reading systems employ a fixed wireless network to assist in the process of automated data collection. Devices such as, for example, repeaters and gateways are permanently affixed on rooftops and pole-tops and strategically positioned to receive data from enhanced meters fitted with radio-transmitters. Typically, these transmitters operate in the 902–928 MHz range and employ Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) technology to spread the transmitted energy over a large portion of the available bandwidth.
Data is transmitted from the meters to the repeaters and gateways and ultimately communicated to a central location. While fixed wireless networks greatly reduce human involvement in the process of meter reading, such systems require the installation and maintenance of a fixed network of repeaters, gateways, and servers. Identifying an acceptable location for a repeater or server and physically placing the device in the desired location on top of a building or utility pole is a tedious and labor-intensive operation. When a portion of the network fails to operate as intended, human intervention is typically required to test the effected components and reconfigure the network to return it to operation.
Conventional meter reading systems typically do not support remote configuration of TOU metering rates. Another drawback of a conventional meter reading systems is that they are limited with respect to operations across multiple regulatory agencies that span a multi-state utility's geographical service territory. For example, a single meter reading system may be operated in a geographical area that spans two neighboring states such as North Carolina (NC) and South Carolina (SC). NC regulations will require one time of use (TOU) fee schedule, while SC regulations will likely require a different TOU fee schedule. Accordingly, NC meters will be configured with one set of TOU programs, while SC meters will be configured with a different set of TOU programs.
Conventional meter reading systems do not enable the NC and SC TOU configurations to be defined at a server and then propagated to collectors in each respective state. Rather, conventional meter reading systems require that collectors in NC be individually pre-programmed with the NC set of TOU programs, while collectors in SC be individually pre-programmed with the SC set of TOU programs. This individual pre-programming is particularly cumbersome when a large number of collectors are operative in both states. Furthermore, if either of the two states change their TOU regulations, conventional meter reading systems require the collectors within the respective state to be manually re-programmed with the updated set of TOU schedules.
Thus, while existing meter reading systems have reduced the need for human involvement in the daily collection of meter data, such systems still require substantial human investment in meter configuration in geographic areas that span regulatory boundaries. Therefore, there is a need for systems and methods for creating multiple operating territories within a meter reading system.